Talk:Battleships/@comment-26915086-20160626213838/@comment-27015223-20160627024043
Here's my two cents, but keep in mind that everything I say has more of a basis in IRL modern naval warfare than in-game mechanics. But I wouldn't say it's irrelevant. First, thing I'd consider is the fact that the new missiles have very long range combined with great paccuracy when combined with the VLS radars. Even if your battleships are able to tank a lot of damage, that in itself could end up being useless if they are unable to return effective fire against a more mobile opponent shooting from long range. The problem with battleships is not that they are magically rendered useless with modern weapons, but that they just emphasize the wrong qualities for modern weapons. The new homing torpedoes mean that enemies could additionally start launching torps with deadly accuracy when you're just starting to fire broadside salvoes with meh accuracy. Big traditional battleship guns rely on statistical probability to hit their targets. They are definitely obsolete as weapons in the face of missiles, except in the land-attack role, but even then they are surpassed in that arena in every category except sheer firepower by 5-8in guns. We don't have land attack in-game anyways. That said I personally would put priorities on ship speed and VLS capabilities. Heavy armor tends to compromise these traits. That is why CIWS was developed and so well-used. Not to mention that armor is only so effective in the end. Since you've already built the battleships and battlecruisers, might as well upgrade them and keep them. But I would put my focus on cruiser-sized AEGIS warships with high speed and strong armament if you're going to use the modern weapons. Maybe lots of them. Heavy armor against shells should be unneeded since you should be able to stay out of range. Air power and submarines would be the biggest threat, and would require proper weaponry to be dealt with. Some armor over critical areas or compartmentalizations to would be needed to help with damage control in the event of a hit or multiple hits, but protection would mostly come from CIWS. ASuW threats can be kept at a distance and destroyed with VLS and harpoon. AAW threats can be destroyed with VLS, AAA, and CWIS. ASW threats can be destroyed with depth charges and maybe torps(?) Everything can be destroyed by a carrier and its air wing. And there you have your fleet composition. Why not build an arsenal ship? Why build one huge warship when you could build three smaller more cost effective warships? What would such a ship accomplish that a carrier or AEGIS ship couldn't accomplish anyway? It would be able to carry more weapons and take more hits, and even be able to return fire effectively. It would be one big slow target though. However, since 60kn battleships exist on this wiki, which is on par with the many destroyers on this wiki, it might not be a bad idea actually. Especially if it has an unholy amount of CIWS. I kinda wrote a wall of text. Sorry about that. But hopefully this was a good read.